Microsoft today announced the Xbox 360 4GB console, along with Wii-type pricing to tempt new punters to buy the Kinect hands-free motion sensor.
Xbox 4GB Bundle group shot Going a bundle
The two products are bundled along with Kinect Adventures, a games show case for Kinect's capabilities, for £249.99 and they go on sale on …

Awesome!

Someone want to wake up el-reg

£250 is not "Wii type pricing, it's not even close it's more than even a top of the range PS3.

This is also the cut-down version of console that needs another £100 spending on it for a harddrive (and another £40 every year to play online).

Kinect is pretty much doomed for failure, there are apparently tonnes of problems with Kinect, namely you need to be wearing the right clothes, you need to be standing up (not sitting down), you can jump, but not too much (or the Xbox will destroy your disks), you can move your hands, but not too much (don't ever cross them), you need to have white skin, you need to have your house decorated correctly and the lighting perfect, no natural sunlight and so forth...

This is even before the problem of pricing, £130 standalone £250 bundle put it's WAY out of range of casual gamers (who you would be hard grasped to spend more than £50 on something like this), and into the ballpark of hardcore gamers, the problem being of course, there are no games that appeal to these people with only Kinectimals type games.

Timeslip

"£250 is not "Wii type pricing, it's not even close it's more than even a top of the range PS3."

It was Wii pricing when the Wii was first released. Kinect is on first release and seems to be a Wii beater. Also, you don't need to buy the XBox with it because you might either a) already have one or b) buy a cheaper old-style XBox to reduce the price to £200 or so.

I expect bundle prices will drop, given time.

The main rule still applies though - if you don't want one, don't buy one. If you DO want one, that's what it costs.

@AC

Its really cool, bit a of departure into casual gaming for MS. But I fiddled briefly and was completely sold.....

>you need to be standing up

True, but they are working on this - in particular they have made a lot of committments to accessibility and have folk working on that now....wheelchair users etc. The voice control side is getting a lot of positive press in that sector already - voiced controlled MM systems, DVD etc is really expensive currently and it does that out of the box.

>you can jump, but not too much

Tosh. No more likely that with a Wii and that doesn't happen AFAIK. Its a standard DVD drive as in any PC. You need to pick it up and wobble it.

>you can move your hands, but not too much (don't ever cross them),

Tosh, done it no issues. You're thinking of Ghostbusters.

>you need to have white skin

Comedy spoof article, you're gullible.

>and the lighting perfect

Nope. No bright lights behind players maybe, but it was working fine with TV spots all round at E3.

>£250 bundle put it's WAY out of range of casual gamers

Bargain and they won't be able to meet demand on release, just look at pre-orders. Most Xbox PS3 and Wii owners already spend more than that in games alone.

Multiple SKU's again.

It's all been rumour, so far. Now it's fact. Punters are again going to be faced with confusing, multiple variations of the same console. Granny buying little Billy's Christmas present isn't going to know the difference, even if some kind soul tries to explain it to her.

Why is it so difficult to make one SKU attractive enough that it's the only one everyone will want to buy? Surely it's simple... if customer wants Xbox, customer pays £199.99 (before retailer-specific discounting). This is not a difficult concept.

I work in a company where it's become a running joke amongst staff about how offering customers too much choice just results in confused customers and a warehouse full of unwanted, unsaleable stock.

Lack of Choice...

Weirdly enough, I'd say it's not just the cost but also the lack of choice that has me pretty much turned off to the idea, and I've been waiting for 'Kinect' for quite a while now. (I still think Natal was a better name).

But Kinect is bundled with 'Kinect Adventures'?!?! Why? Why can't I choose from several options. I saw what was in KA and it's probably the one title above all others that I have absolutely no desire to have... I guess it's probably why it's bundled.